NEW YORK---Trai Young got a pregame hug from Spike Lee, so there was at least a little love for him inside Madison Square Garden.
Once the game started, so did the boom.
And just like in the playoffs, Young had the last word.
Young had 45 points and eight assists in his first game at MSG since becoming a villain to New York Knicks fans, leading to a late surge that led the Atlanta Hawks to a 117-111 victory on Tuesday night.
Picking up where he left off last spring, Young scored seven 3-pointers, one of which tied the game at 105 with 2:54. He then set up Bogdan Bogdanovic for 3 to take the lead and then D'Andre Hunter overtook Taj Gibson with a dribble and shot down a jumper to take an 11–0 lead and put it at 1:04. With 113-105 made. Left.
"I think about Swag and what we were able to do on the court tonight and the energy we had, I knew it was just us versus everyone else tonight," Young said. "And I think if we have that kind of mindset in every game, we're going to give ourselves a chance to win."
Bogdanovic added a season-high 32 points for the Hawks, who trailed the Knicks six games to 10th place in the Eastern Conference, last in the play-in zone.
RJ Barrett had 30 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, falling 30–42 in the last nine to achieve his eighth losing season. The only winning record was when they went 41–31 the previous season to earn the former No. 4 seed.
The Hawks defeated them in five games in the first round of the playoffs. Young was the star in his first postseason series, ignoring profane taunts from fans and bowing to the crowd from near midcourt late in Game 5.
Young missed the return trip when he was sidelined for the Christmas game due to NBA health and safety protocols. Every time he touched the ball on Tuesday morning, fans booed him, though he could not hold up.
Hawks coach Nate McMillan said, "We knew the crowd was going to have the same energy as the playoffs and our focus was on playing good basketball tonight, and we didn't talk about New York or the playoff series." "We needed to win this game. It's a much-needed win for us and that was the focus.
Young said that Lee, the film director and probably Knicks' most famous admirer, always respected him. And did the other fans in the front row speak so kindly?
"Oh yes, they always do, don't they?" The youth joked.
Alec Burks had 21 points for the Knicks, who played without Julius Randall because of pain in the right quadriceps tendon. He led 10 at the start of the fourth, but the game changed when Young re-entered with 7:45 remaining.
The Knicks followed a 34–30 lead, a lead that would have been six if there were 0.6 seconds remaining for Bogdanovic to pull the ball out after Barrett's basket and throw it the length of the court to Young, who made it. Caught and thrown all in one motion.
"It was good, it was good pace," Bogdanovic said, surprising himself a bit.
New York extended it to 12 in the second before the Hawks went ahead with nine and took a 64-58 lead at halftime. Bogdanovic had 15 points in the second quarter and Young had 13, which combined for four more points than the Knicks' score.
"We didn't close the second quarter well and obviously we didn't close the fourth well," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Tip-ins
Hawks: Bogdanovic's play was doubtful due to a right quadriceps injury. ... Although they won the most important four last spring, the Hawks had lost six straight regular-season matchups with the Knicks.
Knicks: Thibodeau said Randall is dealing with pain that hasn't gone away and that rest is probably the only thing that will help. He said the forward was day-to-day. ... Thibodeau said that Derrick Rose, after recovering from a procedure to address a skin infection on his surgically healed right ankle, was working out a bit more but still not practicing. ... Emmanuel Quickley scored 17 points.
Pay
Randall was fined $40,000 by the NBA for directing hostile language at referees following the Knicks' loss at the hands of Utah on Sunday, when he also pushed jazz center Rudy Gobert. Randall has been fined four times this season for a total of $130,000.
"You're human, there's going to be emotion involved," Thibodeau said of Randall's outbursts, "but we have to make sure we're in control of our emotions."
Subsidiary school
The Knicks hosted HBCU Night, which featured pregame festivities by Howard University's Air Force ROTC, and the Delaware State Marching Band performed at halftime. Under the leadership of past president Chris Paul, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have made supporting schools a priority.
McMillan said, "My daughter is a graduate of Howard University, so they're great universities and trying to get more support out to those universities, to focus on those universities for the NBA and our players, I think it's going to be a lot." is important."
Next
Hawks: Visit Detroit on Wednesday.
Knicks: Visit Charlotte on Wednesday.